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This has led to increases in mean global temperature, or global warming. The likely range of human-induced surface-level air warming by 2010–2019 compared to levels in 1850–1900 is 0.8 °C to 1.3 °C, with a best estimate of 1.07 °C. This is close to the observed overall warming during that time of 0.9 °C to 1.2 °C.
In common usage, climate change describes global warming —the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to Earth's climate.
The dominant cause of the warming since the 1950s is human activities. This scientific finding is based on a large and persuasive body of research. The observed warming will be irreversible for many years into the future, and even larger temperature increases will occur as greenhouse gases continue to accumulate in the atmosphere.
Some climate change effects: wildfire caused by heat and dryness, bleached coral caused by ocean acidification and heating, environmental migration caused by desertification, and coastal flooding caused by storms and sea level rise. Effects of climate change are well documented and growing for Earth's natural environment and human societies. Changes to the climate system include an overall ...
The current scientific consensus regarding causes and mechanisms of climate change, its effects and what should be done about it ( climate action) is that: It is "unequivocal" and "incontrovertible" that the greenhouse gas emissions from human activities have caused warming on land, in oceans and in the troposphere.
Indirectly, an increase in global temperatures cause will also increase water vapor concentrations and thus their warming effect, in a process known as water vapor feedback. It occurs because Clausius–Clapeyron relation establishes that more water vapor will be present per unit volume at elevated temperatures. [ 35 ]
Carbon dioxide (CO 2) is the main greenhouse gas resulting from human activities. It accounts for more than half of warming. Methane (CH 4) emissions have almost the same short-term impact. [ 5] Nitrous oxide (N 2 O) and fluorinated gases (F-gases) play a lesser role in comparison.
Warming on Mars was quoted as evidence that global warming on Earth was being caused by changes in the Sun. [205] [206] [207] This has been discredited by scientists: "Wobbles in the orbit of Mars are the main cause of its climate change in the current era" (see also orbital forcing). [208]